


Jäger Search

by Para



Series: Jäger Hunt [1]
Category: Girl Genius
Genre: F/M, Gen, Multi, the focus is the jägers, the relationship is assumed but not the focus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-31
Updated: 2015-12-31
Packaged: 2018-05-10 15:00:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5590594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Para/pseuds/Para
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Most of the detached jägers heard of the Heterodyne's return and came home, but a few are still missing.  Agatha learns this, and decides to fix it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jäger Search

**Author's Note:**

> Gift for sparkagatha for the 2015 Girl Genius Spark Exchange! (Who I do not believe has an AO3? But I will add it if you do!) I am really sorry I could not provide art, but art from me is a guaranteed disaster, so. Instead, a fic! Whiiiich got… a little bit longer than intended. Whoops.
> 
> I hope you enjoy the fic and the holidays!
> 
> Possible warning for Gkika testing battledraught, which involves cutting herself.

The Other was gone, Mechanicsburg was free, and the Baron was no longer chasing (if still very annoyed with) Agatha. It hadn’t been easy, and there were still scars across most of Europa—churned-up fields that had been host to battles, fields of ash that had been forests, people missing from their towns that wouldn’t be coming home. And revenants; Gil and Tarvek had worked out a cure for the revenants whose minds were intact, but it took time to make and to work, and many were still waiting.

But things were _mostly_ good, and looked like they’d get better. There weren’t any more wars or battles and no one was chasing Agatha, so she’d been spending most of her time fixing Mechanicsburg. Zeetha had been correct, the town was happy to led her rebuild everything. Agatha had become giddy with the possibilities within an hour, but for now she was being practical and limiting herself to improving the things that were broken already. That was still most of the town, though she’d made progress in the last two weeks. The people didn’t seem to mind, even though a lot of them were still sleeping in Castle Heterodyne. (The jägers, for their part, were mostly sleeping in Mamma Gkika’s no-longer-for-tourists bar, which absolutely none of them seemed to mind, with the possible exception of Gkika.)

Mechanicsburgers, Agatha had concluded, were the best sort of weird. Every single one of them.

Vanamonde was at the top of that list, even though most of the time it took a bit more conversation to realize how weird he was. Not at the moment, though; right now he was standing beside Agatha, head bandaged as it healed from having the Castle’s holes drilled into his skull, half-eaten cinnamon snail-bread sandwich (Agatha sincerely regretted asking what that smell was) in one hand as he read a summary of reports from the other. “…and General Gkika would like to request that you brew more Battledraught for the jägers, but she says as long as we don’t get into another war it’s probably not critical to have it very soon.”

“Hmmm.” Agatha finished tightening a particularly tricky to reach bolt, and moved onto a much easier one before responding. “What did she do, stab them all?”

“Er—not that I saw,” Van said. “Why would General Gkika have been stabbing the jägers?”

“Well, they’re all sleeping in her bar.”

“Yes, the butchers are still looking for a new space to move to. But I don’t see why….”

Agatha rolled her eyes before rolling out from under the engine she’d been working on to look at Van. Honestly, he acted like this wasn’t obvious. “She also sleeps there.”

“Yes….”

“And they always wake up before she likes to. How many jägers do _you_ know that can stay quiet for three hours?” Agatha asked.

“…I’d wondered why her knuckles were all bruised,” Van said, as if he very much regretted wondering. “But as far as I saw, no, she hadn’t stabbed any of them.”

“Hmm.” Agatha rolled back under the engine. “See what she wants it for, will you? Gkika’s pretty rational, but I’m not sure I agree with most jägers’ ideas of ‘not critical.’”

“Absolutely, my lady,” Van said.

“And can you check on Gil and Tarvek? I haven’t heard anything from them since this morning.”

“The Castle’s power is fully restored, and I don’t think it would let them get hurt badly.”

“I’m more worried about them _causing_ trouble.” Probably in the form of getting into a fistfight with each other, but Agatha suspected the only reason most of the jägers were putting up with being asked to haul building supplies right now was because they’d been missing a Heterodyne for so long they would put up with _anything_. If they found something more interesting to be distracted by, well. And she was beginning to suspect a lot of Mechanicsburgers weren’t much better, that way; if Gil and Tarvek started fighting, between the spectators watching and the other fights that they encouraged once Gil and Tarvek stopped, nothing would get done in that section of the city for the rest of the day. Not that Agatha wouldn’t enjoy watching too, but she couldn’t very well do that now.

“Your consorts are both quite safe and not causing any trouble at all, my lady,” Castle Heterodyne announced, sounding pleased. “I must say, you chose _very_ well.”

“…I’ll check on them now,” Van said.

“Thank you.”

~---~---~---~---~

Agatha had moved to the next engine when Van returned a few hours later, with his head freshly re-bandaged. Agatha wasn’t quite sure why, it wasn’t like they’d been dirty, but Gkika’s urge to doctor everyone she set her eyes on was pretty entertaining even if Agatha was starting to suspect that she didn’t actually have a good grasp of how susceptible humans were (and were not) to infection anymore.

“Masters Gil and Tarvek actually are safe and out of trouble—relatively, Master Gil is up on some rather high towers, but I don’t think the Castle will let him fall,” Van said. “And Master Tarvek is working on some of our more basic defense systems, apparently he had a rather ingenious idea for the lava cannons.”

“Well, that’s good news,” Agatha said. “Maybe we can keep them in separate places for the rest of the repairs.”

“Why, Mistress, you break me,” Castle Heterodyne said. “It’s as if you don’t _trust_ me to keep your consorts from leading three hundred people in a war against the Nyar Spiders and losing.”

“That happened last week.”

“Ancient history! Why, if you held _everything_ against me that I’ve done before now….”

“I had to get the jägers to cut three hundred people out of Nyar-silk.”

“And now you have lots of it! It’s quite valuable, you know. Makes lovely dresses.”

“Gil and Tarvek were both missing half their clothes. The spiders were assembled into a target pattern with them at the center.”

“And I can’t _believe_ you failed to take advantage of such a wonderful opportunity.” The Castle sighed as if it were a disappointed parent. “It _is_ my job to protect the family line, you know.”

Van, wisely, said nothing. Agatha rolled her eyes, and knocked a wrench against the ground pointedly. “ _Gil_ almost _fainted_ before I got there. And it’s _my_ job to fix this city. Now, be quiet.”

The ground shivered. Agatha thought that was a sigh. “Yes, my lady.”

Van coughed. “That aside—I talked to Gkika. She said she’s not out yet and as long as we don’t get into any more wars there shouldn’t be any problems, but she’s running low and she’d like to have some on hand in case any of the missing jägers come back in particularly injured.”

“ _Missing_ jägers?” Agatha dropped a gear she’d been about to put in, and glanced over at Van before peering in to find it. He looked calm….

“Haven’t they mentioned that to you?” Van ducked under the other side of the engine and his hand appeared under it, holding the gear. Huh, Agatha hadn’t thought it had fallen all the way through—oh, yes, she’d removed that plate from the bottom, hadn’t she? That must be where it had gotten through. “The detached jägers weren’t supposed to have much contact with the main army—it was secret that they were still operating on the Generals’ orders—and of course some were better at it than others, and the Generals sent a few packs out to look for other jägers two weeks ago, but they’re back and there are still eight jägers that no one’s seen or heard of in the last few years. We’re hoping most of them will hear about you soon and come back.”

Hmm. Agatha began attaching the gear. “And Gkika expects them to come back injured?”

“Not _necessarily_ , but there are more missing than was expected.” Van picked himself back up to stand near the engine. “It might be that some of them have heard, but injuries have slowed them down getting back.”

Well now. Missing, possibly injured jägers. “Castle?”

“Yes, Mistress?”

“Are there still _notes_ on jäger battledraught, or am I going to have to analyze it and make something up?” Agatha could do that if she needed to, but it would be much faster if she got Gil involved in a biochemistry project like that one, and the jägers probably wouldn’t like it.

“Oh, plenty of notes. The battledraught isn’t that much a secret.”

“Good. Put them in my lab,” Agatha ordered. “I’ll look at them tonight. Van, tell Gkika I’ll make her battledraught, and ask how much she considers a full supply.” Agatha couldn’t begin to guess how quickly jägers would go through a healing draught. It all depended on what injuries they felt deserved it, probably. “Let me know in the morning, I want to see the process before I decide how much I make.”

~---~---~---~---~

Battledraught didn’t take long to brew. It also included no Dyne water, to Agatha’s surprise, though the container that held it was supposed to be dipped into water—which, from the eggshell sketches, Agatha assumed was code for the Dyne—at three different points in the process.

Gkika hadn’t asked for much, so after two batches Agatha collected the bottles and carried them over to Mamma Gkika’s herself. Put together they were actually a little more than Gkika had asked for, but extra wouldn’t hurt, and _missing jägers_ was still sitting restlessly in the back of Agatha’s mind.

The top room of the bar was populated—somewhat sparsely—by jägers, most of whom were injured, and being served drinks by the fake jäger women. Only about half of them were in costume now, but they all still sported sharp, pointed teeth to match the real jägers as they caught sight of Agatha and grinned. She smiled back, since her arms were too full to wave. “I’m looking for Gkika, is she downstairs?”

“Yes, and so is the brawl,” one of the women called over. “So be careful with those bottles.”

“I will. Thanks!”

There was a brawl downstairs. It was very casual; several jägers were sitting around the edges of it, cheering each other on or yelling insults (which resulted in at least one being drawn into the brawl as Agatha edged past). It didn’t take up the whole room, however—in fact, it might have been more accurate to say there were several small fights happening—so there was space for Agatha to get to where Gkika was watching from the bar, skin bright green this time. (Several jägers noticed Agatha and called greetings, which meant that in a second the entire room was shouting hello to Agatha while punching each other, and the fights all shifted a bit away from her path to the bar as she answered.)

Gkika snagged one of the bottles as soon as Agatha was in reach, and opened it as Agatha set the other three down. She sniffed it, then glanced over at Agatha. “Hy hope dot von Mekhan boy deedn’t meke dis sound too criteecal, Hy told him eet vos not.”

“Oh, no, he didn’t.” Agatha brushed her hair back out of her eyes since she hadn’t been able to during the walk to the bar, and slid onto one of the stools. They were all unoccupied; apparently the fight was more interesting than being closest to the alcohol. “But it turns out it doesn’t take that long to make, really.”

Gkika paused her inspection of the bottle to raise an eyebrow at Agatha. “Hy haff seen it made. Eet tekes fourteen hours, und dis looks like hyu made eet tvice.”

…Oooooh. Agatha ducked her head. “So—it isn’t still Wednesday?” Gkika snorted at her. “Well, I’m fine, anyway, Zeetha taught me these tricks she knows so I don’t have to sleep for a while,” which Agatha wasn’t very good at yet, but that was what practice was for! Gil could go for much longer without sleeping, even though everyone was still trying to get him to sleep anyway to make up for the years he hadn’t slept enough. Tarvek had started muttering a while ago about developing better stimulants, but Agatha didn’t think he’d gotten around to it yet. “And I haven’t heard of any disasters repairing the city, so that’s _probably_ alright.”

Gkika smirked. “Hyu boyfriends got into a fight. Eet vos verra fun to vatch.”

Agatha groaned. “And I missed it. Well, I guess it kept them busy…. I wasn’t sure if this was supposed to be secret too.”

“Eh.” Gkika shrugged and set the bottle down, still open. She leaned down to look under the bar, and emerged with a butcher’s knife. “Hy dun know vot schmott guys could figure out from eet.” Gkika set the knife down and picked the bottle back up, dipping a finger into it. “Klaus und his boy ken drink eet, Hy em tinking ve might not be moch ov a seekret for dot moch longer.”

“Hm.” Agatha frowned. _She_ didn’t really care if Gil or Tarvek knew how to make jägers—anyone who _could_ make jägers would need access to the Dyne, and if an enemy could get _there_ they’d have bigger problems than their enemy killing nine tenths of his army to make a few inexperienced jägers. She was a little more bothered by the idea of the Baron being able to—he had a huge army, and even with a peace treaty she’d spent much too long trying to escape him to be comfortable with the idea. And the jägers would hate it regardless. “Well, if anyone does figure it out, it won’t be from me.”

Gkika grinned, and Agatha thought she heard a few relieved sighs from behind her. “Dot’s goot to hear.” She licked off the finger she’d dipped in the battledraught, then closed it as her skin started fading rapidly through different colors. Agatha was still watching and trying to determine a pattern (they were all bright, but there didn’t seem to be an _order_ ) when Gkika picked the knife up and sliced her own arm open.

Agatha yelped and started up. “Gkika!”

“Shh.” Gkika reached out with the arm she hadn’t _just cut open_ and pressed Agatha absently back into her seat. She was still staring at the wound as it—oh, the bleeding was slowing already. “Iz fine, Hy em testink eet.”

“Red fire, don’t _scare_ me like that.” Agatha sighed, and slumped back in her seat. “I thought you’d—I don’t know—been possessed or gone crazy or something.”

Gkika looked up long enough to grin at Agatha. “Hy em a jäger, sveetling, Hy em alreddy krezy.”

Agatha sighed.

Gkika’s skin settled into a bright violet shade after a minute, and she stopped staring at the wound. It had closed, although not completely vanished yet. She pulled a rag out from under the bar, cleaned off the knife, and then wiped up the blood from her arm and the top of the bar. She grinned at Agatha as she did. “Dis iz a strong batch, Hy tink de vater likes hyu.”

Agatha blinked. “What—it changes?”

Gkika shrugged, and dropped the rag back behind the bar. “A leedle. Iz alvays strong, bot zumtimes iz stronger den odders.”

Agatha glanced back at the bottles she’d set down. “And… this time it’s stronger?” Gkika nodded. “Are you sure it’s not just time, though? A lot of medicine loses potency over time, and you can’t have had any fresh in a while…. Probably not since my grandfather, even, what is that, sixty years ago? It could lose a lot in that much time.”

Gkika shrugged. “Mebbe eet loses a leedle, bot Hy alvays test eet ven iz new.”

“What—like that?”

“Ov cawse. Hy gots to know how moch to giff my boys vhen dey do schtupid tings.”

Agatha sighed. “Of course.”

Gkika leaned against the bar as well, gaze falling out over the room full of fighting and cheering jägers. “Master Bill did make sum for os, vunce. Vos not verra strong, dot time.” She grinned again, looking back at Agatha. “Iz goot for vhen a human gets all chopped op und my boys bring him in.”

Gkika was definitely implying something there, but Agatha had to think for a minute to realize what. “Oh! So, when Gil was hurt after he beat that army….”

“Yah.” Gkika pushed herself up off the bar, and went to the wall behind it. “Vould haff hed more side effects, if Hy had to giff him de strong schtuff.”

“Oh. Well, that’s good that you had it.” Strange to think about, too. Her father might have sort of saved her boyfriend’s life, by being bad at making jäger medicine. “I wonder if I could make weaker versions on purpose….”

“ _Hy_ dunno, dot’s schpark schtuff.” Gkika turned halfway back to Agatha, a fresh glass in her hand. "Vot hyu vant to drink, sveetie?"

"Um…." Agatha glanced over the bottles she could see. She recognized very few of them. Going by the names, she thought very few people would have. She might need to get Theo down here sometime, though, the jägers would probably enjoy even his most… intense creations. "How about nothing that will have weird side effects. …And nothing with snails or bugs," she added, catching sight of a bottle labeled _Lightning Bug_.

"Bot de bogs iz de best part." The new voice had an even thicker accent than Gkika. Agatha turned, and found a jäger settling at the bar a few seats down, grinning. He was a typical jäger green, with spikes growing out of the back of his hands, cheekbones, and forearm. Agatha eyed them and wondered if they had stopped growing or had to be filed down, and if they'd stopped would they grow back if one got broken.

"Hyu ken haff bogs," Gkika told the new jäger. She plucked a bottle off a shelf, which Agatha couldn't read the label of, and poured it into the glass. She passed it to Agatha, and turned back to get another bottle as Agatha inspected it.

The drink looked _almost_ normal, deep golden brown, except for a slight, iridescent sheen of blue that appeared as Agatha tilted the glass, and vanished again as soon as the liquid was still. She tilted it back, and green shadows gleamed in it before it stilled again. "Hm…." Agatha tilted it again, observed that the blue came back, and then swirled it experimentally. Green and blue both gleamed at her this time from different sides, and she thought flecks of white appeared in the center. "Ooh. Hmmm…."

This drink—whatever it was—was _fascinating_. Looking at it from the sides brought whole new effects; blue and green both gleaming at an edge, and yellow through the center. If she swirled it the other way, the blue and green switched sides. Any time Agatha let the glass sit still the little gleams of color vanished completely, and the drink would look like a perfectly normal brown until she moved it again.

Gkika's hand appeared in front of Agatha, tapping against the glass, and Agatha realized she'd been Heterodyning. Oops. Well, she hadn't gotten _very_ distracted. She let the humming trail off. The bar was quieter now, but she didn't think it was bad. 

"Hy haff another bottle hyu ken schtudy later," Gkika said.

Right. Yes. Agatha was supposed to be drinking this. She took a sip. It tasted like strawberries—no, bread—no, nutmeg—no… well, it certainly wasn't unpleasant. Agatha told herself firmly that she had a city to fix and missing jägers to find (somehow) before she had time to play with even very interesting drinks. "Oh—well—I'd like to, but maybe later. I have a lot of things to fix still. This is good, though."

Gkika was smiling, softer than Agatha thought she'd seen before. It broadened into a more typical grin as she noticed Agatha looking. "Zo mebbe Hy ken tempt hyu beck here, yah? Iz goot for dot."

Oh. Agatha had gotten used to being in Mechanicsburg, but it seemed everyone else was taking longer to get used to her being there. "I'll come back," she promised. "You don't have to tempt me. Although this would be a good way to…."

Someone sniffed to her right. Agatha turned; the jäger that had wanted bugs was still there, holding his own glass (Agatha resolved not to think about the little pink and black flecks suspended in it) and turned slightly away, head down like he could hide. He wasn't succeeding very well; Agatha could still see his eyes watering. She briefly considered leaving him alone, but she didn't want to. "What's your name?"

He sniffed again, apparently in surprise, and fixed Agatha with a wide-eyed look. "Radu." He puffed up in a casual smugness that Agatha strongly suspected was at least partly faked. "Hy iz de most nize-lookink jäger, und de best vit knives!"

Agatha giggled. "I'm sure. So…." What did jägers use for casual conversation? "I've heard that hats always come with interesting stories."

Radu grinned and launched into a story that, by the end, involved five other jägers, two wars, Paris four hundred years ago, and the second ever litter of what would eventually become mimmoths. Agatha found herself giggling through most of it, but couldn't really claim not to believe any of it. If it had come from anyone but a jäger…. "Iz de oldest hat in de pack!" Radu bragged at the end. "Effen de Generals hats iz newer."

"Becawze Radu ken't get a new hat!" another jäger called over from the tables. It wasn't the first interjection from that direction, though Agatha thought it might be the first from this particular jäger. "Und efferyvun iz feelink too nize to take eet ven he ken't get a new one."

"Hoy!"

"Iz ruinink all hour reputations," the other jäger sighed. “Beink _nize_.”

"Hy ken teke hyu hat enny time Hy vant, iz chust a ugly hat!"

"Ha! Tree of hyu ken't take mine hat!"

Agatha was laughing. "Go, have fun," she said, and Radu launched himself at the tables with a dramatic snarl. His glass had been emptied several times, so Agatha wasn't entirely surprised to see him fly directly into the table that the other jäger picked up to use as a particularly large shield. She watched long enough to be sure he picked himself back up—he shook his head as he stood up, but seemed completely undeterred—before turning back to the bar.

Gkika was a few meters down the bar, drinking something of her own and watching the fights, but she turned as Agatha did and came back over. "Iz nize ov hyu to let Radu tell dot schtory." She grinned. "Iz his favorite. Novun elze vants to hear it enny more."

"It's a fun story," Agatha said. She rested an elbow on the bar and lowered her voice. "I wanted to ask you something. Van said there were jägers missing."

"Ah. Yez." Gkika's expression became serious and she leaned in, her voice lowering as well. "Eight ov dem. Most ov de detached vuns hear und come home ven de Wulfenbach boys do, und ve find a few more since den."

"But not all of them," Agatha said.

"No."

"And…." Agatha glanced down, spun her empty glass in her hands, and made herself look back up. "And you think they're still alive? Dimo, Maxim and Oggie were hanging when I met them…."

Gkika grinned, but it seemed less pleasant than normal. "Hanging ken't kill os. Ven pipple ken kill os…." She sighed, and looked up and over the rest of the room again before focusing back on Agatha. "Dey iz not usually _qviet_ about it. Ve hear dem bragging, und ve ken get de bodies und hats und bring dem home, if dere iz ennyting left. Mebbe sumvun ken kill os und not talk about it, or died too, bot eight iz too many. Hy tink sum of dem vill come home schtill."

"I see." Agatha wasn't sure what else to say. She had an idea who might be able to kill jägers and not talk about it—odd as it seemed to think of Othar as _not_ bragging about something—and eight didn't seem impossible, especially if they'd been traveling in groups, but he _hadn't_ killed Dimo, Maxim and Oggie. Agatha wasn't sure if that was because he hadn't known hanging wouldn't kill them, or if he hadn't meant to to begin with. "Do you know where they were going?"

Gkika shook her head. "Dere vere not assignments, eksept to scatter. De Heterodynes haff gone many placez before, und ve hoped to find vun ov hyu cousins."

"Hmm." Agatha cut herself off before she could start heterodyning. She didn't have a real idea yet, even if she was sure there was something she must be able to do. She was a Heterodyne and a spark, she could do something about anything, she just needed to figure out exactly what. "I'll see what I can do. About finding them, I mean."

Gkika almost managed to hide her surprise. Agatha huffed indignantly. "Well, I'm not going to just leave them! They're _mine_."

Gkika smiled, slow and satisfied. "Dey iz."

~---~---~---~---~

Agatha dreamed, and the universe spun out before her in gears and metal arms and bright, electric lights. (She’d dreamed of this before, though she didn’t think of it.) She could see it working, see the gears spin and arms move, the lights flicker and pulse—oh, there were wires, too, she could see them now, and the more she watched the more she saw, and the more she understood.

Agatha hummed, and the entire universe resonated with it, her focus echoed back a million times. She thought it all did, at first, but no—no, when she listened just right, there were a few spots that didn’t; they didn’t return her hum, or they echoed it back distorted, out of time and tune and order. And—

Oh….

Oh, yes, that would work! Yes, she could see it now, how elegant….

Agatha woke suddenly, though not with a sudden leap out of bed. She amended that immediately as she remembered her idea, reaching for a robe and slippers (the Castle’s absurd heating system somehow still didn’t keep the floor from being cold at night—maybe she could set Tarvek to work on that later).

“My lady?” The Castle sounded startled. “It’s still quite early, you know.”

“I know.” Agatha shrugged the robe on—oh good, this was an old one. She got the slippers on too, and took off running toward the nearest—oh, no, the nearest lab didn’t have what she needed. She mentally amended her route, and turned at the corner instead of continuing straight. “You can talk to the jägers, right?”

The Castle sounded alarmed now. “Mistress? Is something wrong?”

“What? Oh, no, I just had an idea.”

“An idea which requires jägers? I can fetch your chief minion for you if you’d like….”

“No, this has to do with the jägers.” And it would be so much easier if Agatha could have had the Castle bring Gil and Tarvek and Moloch and maybe Theo and Sleipnir to help, but she wasn’t sure how much of the jägers’ biology she’d be going into and the jägers probably wouldn’t like that. So she needed to remember to do this one by herself. “I’m going to need some of them to test it in—hm—three hours.”

“I have informed them.”

“Thank you.” That seemed to be the end of the conversation, so Agatha let herself begin heterodyning. This would work, she didn’t know of anything very similar that had been done before, but she was certain this would work. Bah! What fools hadn’t thought to make a jäger radar system before? Or thought that they couldn’t? Well, Agatha could and would! It was just a shame she wouldn’t be able to show them all _how_.

Agatha surfaced from her fugue—only partially, but enough to pay attention to the aspects of her surroundings that didn’t involve her immediate project—a few hours later, and found a dozen jägers already waiting. Most she didn’t know very well, but Maxim was there, and reaching into a beaker of powerful acid. “Maxim!”

He jumped and snatched his hand back, looking guilty. A few others faked innocence as well, pulling back from gears and wires, but they hadn’t been about to _dissolve their hands off_ , so Agatha reserved her stern look for Maxim for now. “If you touch that you’ll lose your hand.”

He looked even guiltier, and slunk away from the table. “Hy’m sorry, Mistress.”

Agatha sighed. “I _mean_ it’s acid and it would take your hand off, stop looking like that.” He perked back up. Hm, maybe Agatha shouldn’t be encouraging the jägers to associate nearly sticking their hands into unknown substances with relief? “Honestly, you’re how old and you still don’t know not to touch things in a lab, how did you survive this long.”

“By beink verra hard to kill,” Maxim said, with a perfectly straight face.

Well, Agatha supposed that was true enough. She shook her head and turned back to the machine she’d built. “Right. I’m going to test this. All of you stay where you are, and tell me if you feel anything odd.”

The machine looked, mostly, like a series of cubes with a transmitter attached. Agatha had had to synthesize principles from the Lion, her locket, and (of course) radar, among other sources. It had been a thrilling challenge, and this was still only a prototype.

It had to be; to work properly the real one would need to be able to detect jägers over the whole continent at least, but _testing_ it at that scale wouldn't work at all. So this one only covered roughly the area of the lab. Agatha flicked a switch, and several of the cubes shifted and spun, setting off a burst of sparks (a jäger ooohed appreciatively—okay, Agatha might have made them a _little_ bigger than necessary), and a globe of white lines was projected above the machine, with a red spot in the center.

Agatha moved to the row of buttons on another side, and pressed the first.

The globe flashed blue, and then a set of green dots appeared in rapid succession. Most were level with the red dot, but one was below; a jäger patrolling the Castle, most likely. Agatha studied the level dots, turning occasionally to check the positions of the jägers in the room. One extra, where Agatha was standing; she'd wondered if that might happen. “Did anyone feel anything?”

The jägers chorused no, but the Castle complained. “ _I_ did. It was quite strange, are you certain this is necessary?”

“It is, and it won't hurt you, so hush. I could use some minions now, though. And get Gil and Tarvek in here too.”

Less than a minute later, a hole opened up in the wall and Gil tumbled out, hammer still held tightly in one hand from whatever he’d been working on. He blinked at the lab momentarily before rolling back to his feet. “Uh… oh! Agatha! Did you want something?”

Agatha sighed, and put down the energy absorption device she’d been working on. “Yes, sort of. Castle?”

“Yes, Mistress?”

“Don’t drop anyone else down holes to get them here.”

“You take the fun out of everything,” the Castle said.

“And don’t chase them or carry them or do anything else like that either. Let them walk here themselves.”

The Castle rumbled and vibrated, the closest it could get to a sigh. “Oh very _well_.”

“So… not an emergency, then,” Gil guessed. He made his way around a table, and toward the radar machine.

Agatha sighed. "No, that's just the Castle. I just wanted to test this. And don't touch it!"

Gil jumped, and turned to Agatha. He looked completely bewildered, and vaguely hurt. "But… you wanted me here."

"It's a jäger detection system. I want to see if it notices you, but you can't look at how it works."

"Oh." The hurt expression cleared, though he still looked confused. "But I'm not a jäger."

"Ken fix dot," a jäger offered, cheerfully. "Eet only hurts for a _leedle_ bit!"

Gil rolled his eyes. "How much it _hurts_ is _not_ a secret."

"Bot iz not for long!"

"Because you _faint_."

"Hoy!"

"Iz not _faintink_!" Maxim protested. "Iz passink out!"

"And that's _better_?" Gil asked.

"It's more dignified," Agatha said. "But I wanted to test this on you because Gkika gave you battledraught."

"She did mention side effects…." Gil trailed off, took a step toward the machine, then rocked back. "And if you don't want me thinking about why that would overlap we should talk about something else now."

Agatha wouldn't actually mind sharing why they might overlap, but the jägers probably didn't know enough to know that 'the Dyne is involved' wouldn't actually tell Gil anything new. What to distract him with though, it couldn't take long or else Agatha might be distracted too….

Fortunately at that point Tarvek stormed into the lab, half dressed. Gil grinned. "Tarvek! Still asleep, are you? I wouldn't have thought you'd ever forget your clothes."

Tarvek gave Gil a disgusted look. " _I_ was hauled out of my bed by a tiger clank—"

"They're called Fun-Sized Mobile Agony and Death Dispensers," the Castle corrected.

Tarvek gave the wall an equally disgusted look. "By a _tiger clank_." He folded his arms and frowned at Gil and Agatha. "And I see _neither_ of _you_ slept."

"I don't need to," Gil said.

"I did, I just got up early—and you do too!" Agatha frowned at Gil. "I will tell the Castle to make you sleep if I have to."

"Oh please do," the Castle and Tarvek said in unison. Tarvek immediately looked disturbed.

"Please don't," Gil said. "It would probably chain me in your room or something."

"Ooh," the Castle said.

"Or the seraglio," Tarvek suggested.

"It can put _you_ there, you already picked out a room."

" _Did_ he?" The Castle sounded delighted.

"Oh yes, and Gil agreed to share it with me—"

"If you could _please_ stop giving my house ideas," Agatha said. "I want to test this."

That got Tarvek focused, and moving toward the machine. "What is it?"

"A jäger detection system, so don't touch," Agatha said. "I think it might find Gil too so I want to test you both to compare."

"Ah." Tarvek looked much too serious. "So you're detecting manners, then."

"Hey!"

"Eet vould not find him, he iz verra rude," one of the jägers complained.

"Yah, he hardly fights ennyvun!"

"Miz Zeetha iz moch more polite."

"She iz schtill picky…."

"Yah, bot she iz fightink gurl, she haz to be picky."

"Okay!" Agatha interrupted. "Moving on. Castle, aren't there minions on the way?"

"Yes. Shall I hurry them?"

"No. How far are they?"

The Castle shivered in another sigh. "They're just reaching this hallway now, my lady."

Moloch, Van and a handful of other townspeople arrived in a few minutes, Moloch grumbling and the townspeople chattering excitedly. Agatha couldn't tell if Moloch was relieved or not when she said all she wanted them to do was stand around the room while she tested something, but two of the townspeople were visibly disappointed. Agatha chose to ignore the complaint one made about looking forward to some nice scars.

The jäger radar did detect Gil, though not quite as strongly as it detected Agatha. That was in line with Agatha's predictions; what wasn't was that it detected Tarvek as well, just as strongly as Gil. Agatha heterodyned and fiddled with the machine for a few minutes before remembering the si vales valeo and her energy transfusion at the end, and asking the Castle to send in another spark. Really, her memories of the procedure weren't exactly the clearest, but she certainly shouldn't have forgotten about that when she was looking for the Dyne's energy! Nor should she have forgotten to tell the Castle not to send in another spark by carrying him in with one of the Fun-Sized Mobile Agony and Death Dispensers, but fortunately Theo was good-natured about it.

The radar didn't detect Theo, so Agatha moved on to step two, and passed the radar absorption devices to Tarvek and several jägers, since she didn't have enough for everyone in the room yet. They worked exactly as she'd intended, each of the people holding one vanishing from the radar as the waves that would otherwise have bounced off of the traces of Dyne energy were instead absorbed by the devices. That would let her search just for the jägers that weren't yet back in contact with Mechanicsburg. She would have to make a lot of the absorption devices, of course, but… oh, maybe she could get her little clanks to make some of them….

Agatha noticed, absently, as the jägers realized she was done testing and began herding the humans out, mostly because Tarvek asked Maxim to take Gil to bed. That caused a great deal of whistles, flirting, protests, and overall noise, and after the jägers got bored, more protests from Gil that he didn’t need to sleep, honest, as Maxim carried him off and Tarvek threatened to knock him out.

All of it was irrelevant, so Agatha ignored it, her mind racing with substances and structures. Her little clanks were capable of building the absorption devices, but not designed for it, and prone to getting distracted at times. It would probably be more efficient to build a clank that was designed to make the devices, and she could make it larger too—oh, and give it the ability to stamp patterns into the metal of the devices, if she was going to ask the jägers to wear them for long she had better put covers on them, and she may as well make them look nice…. Probably trilobites, Agatha’s family symbol was probably a safe bet to put on jägers without them complaining….

A few jägers lingered near the entrance to the lab, with loud (and, largely, unheard) comments about how the Heterodyne really ought to have a guard while she was distracted. They got quiet and tried, with varying degrees of subtlety, to hide their expressions when the heterodyning started up, so the Castle only made a token protest that it was perfectly capable of protecting the Heterodyne, thank you.

~---~---~---~---~

It took a few days for Agatha’s trio of larger building clanks to finish the absorption devices, and three weeks for Agatha to be satisfied that all the remaining repairs to Mechanicsburg could be handled by the mechanics, or were considered not secret and could be handled by Gil, Tarvek and Theo. Or rather, by Gil and Tarvek; Agatha had introduced Theo to the jäger’s idea of “goot drinks” a few days ago, and he’d only stopped working to sleep since.

Sleipnir wasn’t exactly pleased with Agatha for that, but she came to see Agatha off anyway. Well, so had everyone _but_ Theo, it seemed. Agatha was only traveling with Gkika and thirty jägers (mostly those that had previously been detached), and Alexandra, Ionel and Monica, three Mechanicsburgers who had informed Agatha that one of the missing jägers was their boyfriend and fiance, and they had been left behind once and most certainly would not be again. Teaching them to drive the extra wagon clanks (Gkika’s medical supplies didn’t take up much space, but even planning to buy from towns along the way food did, and the jäger radar machines were large enough to occupy almost a full wagon by themselves) had gone much faster than teaching Dimo to drive the last one had, and Agatha didn't want to think about trying to teach any of the other jägers, so while Agatha was a bit surprised she didn’t mind.

Despite the small size of the group departing, Agatha was pretty sure every jäger was crowded by the gate as they prepared to leave, creating a loud and cheerful commotion. Most of the townspeople were there too; many crowded behind the jägers, while some of the older or braver wove or shoved their way forward, joining in the noise and jostling.

Gil had pushed his way through the crowd easily, Tarvek strolling in his wake, and was looking up at Agatha from beside the lead wagon, arms folded. He would probably object to Agatha calling his expression a pout. “I still think we should come with you.”

Agatha rested her arms on her legs, leaning down. The wagon was high enough that even Gil’s eyes were about level with Agatha’s ankle, but talking wasn’t too difficult. “We’d just have to leave you behind when we got near a wild jäger, and that’s the part you’d be worrying about anyway.”

“I’m rather more concerned about assassins.” Tarvek’s voice was calm, his hands in his pockets, but his eyes were slightly narrowed in a way that usually meant he was worried.

Agatha didn’t think he needed to be. “I’m traveling with thirty jägers, I’ll be fine.”

“Yes, that’s why I’m worried about the wild ones,” Gil said. “What if they’re not stable? Humans are less dependent on contact with others on average, and isolation for twenty years—well, we don’t even _have_ studies on that, but even isolation for a few years usually leads to insanity, and—”

“Yes, that’s why we’re only bringing other jägers,” Agatha repeated. And the three human fiances, who hadn’t really been planned. “If we find a jäger who’s—mm—having trouble, other jägers will be more reassuring.”

“But what if—”

“Gil,” Agatha said firmly, and he stopped. “I will be fine. You’re not coming. You need to go back to Castle Wulfenbach soon anyway.”

Gil sighed.

“Leaving this city will be much easier with its fairest attraction absent,” Tarvek said, charming smile back in place. “Be sure to stop by Sturmhalten if you’re near in a month.”

Agatha blushed, and smiled back. “I’ll do that.”

“Oh, now, that’s not fair,” Gil complained. “I’m not going to be in one place.”

“If I’m near Castle Wulfenbach,” Agatha said dryly, “I think I’ll notice.” Tarvek smirked.

“Er… yes,” Gil said. He sighed. “I suppose I’ll go back in a month too, then.”

“I’ll send a message if I see it after then,” Agatha said. How exactly she’d send one she wasn’t sure, but it wouldn’t be too hard. Plenty of her little clanks were scattered through the wagons so that Agatha wouldn’t have to do all the maintenance herself; she could modify one of the ones that could fly. It would be easy.

“De boyz iz ready!” Gkika’s voice was effortlessly loud over the noise of the crowd, and it parted before her. She was in full battle dress, one of the new absorption devices gleaming at her throat, and unnecessarily large sword in hand as she waved. She was, at least, easily tall enough that no one had to duck.

Agatha sat up, and waited for Gkika to reach her before talking. “Alexandra, Ionel and Monica?”

“Alzo ready.” Gkika paused behind Gil and Tarvek, then strode around the front of the wagon and climbed up to the seat beside Agatha. “Efferyvun is chust vaiting for hyu now.”

“Right.” Agatha stood and turned to look over the other wagons. The other drivers were largely distracted; Ionel and Alexandra were leaning down to talk to people nearby, and Monica was doing the same but occasionally glancing in Agatha’s direction. Dimo was also occasionally glancing toward Agatha, but hanging onto the edge of the wagon clank with one hand as he reached down and over to punch another jäger with the other. Agatha still hadn’t figured out whether the other Generals deciding to train Dimo to join them had resulted in the increase in him punching other jägers because he felt the need to enforce discipline, or just because the rest were taunting him so much. Both seemed likely.

Considering Dimo was driving the last of the five wagons and Agatha could still hear the cackling of the jäger running away from him, she was willing to make a bet on the cause of this instance.

Agatha, on the other hand, would have a hard time being heard, so she sat back down, and reached for Gil and Tarvek. She caught one of their hands in each of hers and squeezed. “I’ll see you later, okay?”

“Of course,” Tarvek said, hand tight on hers. She brushed a thumb over the back of his, and his grip tightened further. “We’ll do our best to get what’s left fixed up for you while you’re gone.”

Gil’s grip wasn’t quite as tight, but he leaned forward so his forehead was against the back of her hand. “…Going to miss you,” he admitted, barely audible over the crowd.

“You too,” Agatha said, and turned her hand to rest against his cheek. Gil leaned into it; she could feel the beginning of stubble under her fingers. “I’ll miss you both.”

Tarvek was glancing away, the edges of longing around his eyes, so Agatha tugged on his hand. “Come here.” He looked back, smile forming, and stepped forward, and Agatha brought her hand up to his cheek as well. His was still smooth, and he kept his fingers laced through hers, so she could only brush her fingertips against his face. “I’ll be back.”

Tarvek closed his eyes and sighed, leaning into her hand as well.

They stayed like that as the noise passed around them for a minute, two, three, until finally Tarvek sighed and stepped back, separating his hand from Agatha’s. “We shouldn’t keep you.”

Gil snorted softly, raising his head and stepping back as well. “Couldn’t, you mean.”

“That also.”

Agatha took a breath, and reminded herself that she really did need to go. “I left a radar machine that should cover Europa easily, and I’m not wearing one of the masking devices, so if you want to find me you can use that.”

“What if you leave Europa?”

“All the missing jägers seem to be in Europa still, so I shouldn’t have to.” Agatha considered it. “But if I do, I’ll stop back here first. We’d need to prepare more, anyway.”

“Good luck,” Gil said.

“Stay safe,” Tarvek added.

“I will.”

Gkika leaned over Agatha’s shoulder, expression solemn. “Ve vill protekt her.”

Gil let out a breath that wasn’t quite a sigh. “Thank you, Mamma.” Tarvek nodded beside him.

“Right. Time to go.” Agatha wanted to reach for them both again, but then she might not ever leave. Or she might bring them with her, but Tarvek had already been putting off going back to restore Sturmhalten for too long and Gil needed to spend time on Castle Wulfenbach now that Lilith had (rather loudly, and at length) suggested better ways for the Baron to spend time with him than tests. It had been beneficial for Gil to stay away from Castle Wulfenbach at first while the Baron reasserted his authority, and since no one was really living in Sturmhalten now Tarvek had been able to wait, but they shouldn’t delay indefinitely, and this search would take time.

Agatha sat up, and started the wagon clank’s engine. Its roar was followed by the roars of the other wagons as the drivers noticed, and the noise of the crowd swelled into a cheer. The people in front of the wagons began scrambling out of the way, the ones by the sides pressed back to make space, and jägers that had drifted away leapt back to the wagons’ sides, or scrambled up to perch on top.

The wagon started moving with a jolt, then settled into a more rhythmic motion. Agatha heard the others start clatter into motion one by one behind her, and led the caravan out the gates.

~---~---~---~---~

According to the radar, the nearest jäger had been about two weeks’ travel from Mechanicsburg. That hadn’t accounted for the need to take the wagons around mountains, or take a day for Agatha to modify them to go over a deep river.

Once they finally reached the approximately correct place, Agatha used the smaller-scale radar to pinpoint the jäger’s exact location, and got no response. He did appear again on the continent-scale radar, thankfully, but turned out to have moved a further three days’ travel North.

Agatha checked every morning, noon and night when they stopped to eat the rest of the way there, but he didn’t move much further. That was odd—two days away they began finding signs of small-scale, destructive fights; typical, Agatha thought and Gkika confirmed, of a single jäger repeatedly fighting and running from something. Monica located a sigil plate that was only slightly melted and very bent in the remains of a clank that appeared to have been crushed and then set on fire, and the sigil on it was still recognizable when Alexandra hammered it flat, but Agatha didn’t recognize it. If any of the jägers did, they didn’t feel the need to bring it up.

It wasn’t like anyone actually _cared_ exactly which spark was hunting a jäger, anyway.

The wagons could only go slightly faster in the wooded, increasingly hilly terrain they were making their way through, but they increased speed as much as they could. Agatha worked out improvements for the wagons and gave the plans to her little clanks, so they got faster as they went. Gkika, with occasional shouted help from Dimo and the humans, figured out how to drive Agatha’s wagon, and Agatha retreated into the back of one with the clank remains they’d collected to study them.

She wasn’t very impressed at all.

~---~---~---~---~

The wagons came to an unusually early halt on the third day, jolting Agatha out of her fugue. She blinked, checked the window to be sure she hadn’t completely lost track of time—no, it was still light out; not even starting to get dark. She poked her head out.

Gkika, Dimo and Monica were waiting for her outside the wagon, expressions serious. They hadn’t been much else, the last few days. Gkika didn’t waste time. “De jäger iz schtill ahead, yah?”

“I can check again,” Agatha said. “But he was at lunch, and…” she glanced at the sun, “it’s only been an hour or two.”

Gkika nodded. “De vagons ken’t go fast in dis, und de scouts say eet vill not get easier. Ve iz cloze, Hy tink vill be fester vitout de vagons.”

“Hmm.” Agatha had been starting to think so herself, ever since the gulleys and ravines started appearing the previous night. “The wagons will need guards, and we’ll need supplies. Even the small radar is too large to practically carry, so we’ll have to search without it.” Which wouldn’t be impossible by any means, at last check the jäger had been about fifteen kilometers away. But it would take longer, especially in these hills, and they would likely spent a night or two camping before they caught up unless they were especially lucky.

“De humans schould schtay here too,” Dimo said.

Monica frowned.

She didn’t seem about to say anything, but Gkika nodded firmly anyway. “Hyu iz not fighters,” she told Monica, “und ve iz going to fight. Und,” she grinned, not very kindly, “ve leave five ov my boyz vit hyu, und de vagons, Hy tink mebbe de madboy dot vants my boy vill take de bait.”

“That,” Monica said dryly, “is not what I’d call avoiding a fight.”

Gkika waved it off. “He ken’t ketch vun ov my boyz, hyu vill be safe vit five.”

Monica rolled her eyes, like she was used to dealing with jägers.

“We’ll do that,” Agatha said, before anything else could come up. “Generals, how long will it take you to sort out who’s staying, and how to carry supplies?”

Dimo straightened, automatically self conscious. Gkika smiled, predatory. “How fast hyu vant to go?”

Agatha considered. She had plenty of parts. “Three hours. I’m going to build some death rays.” She’d started on some, but if they were splitting up she wanted at least nine; a backup each for Alexandra, Ionel and Monica, and two for herself.

Gkika’s grin spread to Dimo and Monica; in the corner of Agatha’s vision, several other jägers and Ionel joined as well. “Yez, Mistress.”

Three hours later, “ _ve hunt!_ ” echoed through the hills.

The jäger they were searching for wouldn’t be able to hear it yet, but it wouldn’t be long until he could.

~---~---~---~---~

Agatha spent most of the next two days scrambling up and down hills almost steep enough to be called cliffs (and a few that actually were), thoroughly glad that no one was expecting her to carry one of the packs of food and camping supplies, though that may have been because she had three death rays slung over her back and on her belt.

Despite that, they made better time than they had with the wagons; Agatha couldn’t bound over the ravines the way the jägers could, but thanks to Zeetha’s training she could keep moving at a reasonable pace, and every so often one of the jägers would simply pick her up and carry her over the hills with the most precarious footing, or the occasional canyon. That allowed them to take a more or less straight path the way they wanted to go, instead of having to wind around searching for relatively level paths that the wagons could manage.

Among the hills were a number of small clank units; whoever their spark was, he seemed to have a lot of resources to expend on chasing a jäger. Each unit of clanks consisted of two large ones, with six legs and cage-like grabbing claws that were sharp on the outside, and electrified on the inside. Accompanying those were six or eight smaller clanks that scurried on four legs, and shot fire from their head and bullets from a flexible tail. All of them were armored, but not very well; designing them for flexibility had left most of their joints relatively exposed, and weak besides; after the first day most of the jägers largely stopped jamming weapons into the joints of the smaller ones, and simply teamed up to rip them apart.

It wasn’t really the best idea every time, and Gkika had to give Vilka battledraught after one of the smaller clanks caught them with a blast of fire to the face. But battledraught really was effective, and within half an hour Vilka was recovered enough that Gkika let them walk on their own again. Most fights went much more smoothly, too, although battledraught was still distributed for a few deeper wounds and a broken leg that, according to Gkika, would have healed within the day anyway, but they wanted to move fast. (Maxim had one of the deeper wounds, and seemed mostly to be annoyed about the bullet hole in his cloak, rather than the one in his side. Agatha made a note to suggest the idea of fabrics that could act as armor to Tarvek.)

They’d split up to counter the apparently endless units of clanks; four groups of five jägers ranged along and around the main group, not always quite within hearing range but close enough to easily find their way back should they encounter a sign of the missing jäger, get badly injured, or at nightfall. Agatha and Gkika stayed approximately in the center of the four scouting groups, along with the remaining five jägers, usually the five most recently injured.

It was early afternoon on the third day when there was an explosion to the Northwest.

An explosion wasn’t unexpected—Agatha had given all the scouting jäger groups small bombs to use as signals, since subtlety wasn’t likely to happen anyway and making them run back to her when they found something would only have slowed them all down. They’d been finding more frequent and recent remnants of battles; a few of the clank remains they’d found that morning had still been slightly warm.

But there were only two things Agatha could think of that would be worth signaling: the jäger, and the spark chasing him. Either way she wanted to get there _fast_.

Gkika agreed, of course; she was already beside Agatha as Agatha looked for her. “How far?”

“About a kilometer.” Her estimate was rough, based entirely on the size and volume of the explosion, but they didn’t really need to know. The jägers could run much further than the explosions would carry; the information was really only important to the jägers’ patience.

Gkika crouched long enough for Agatha to climb onto her back, then stood. “Ready?”

Agatha checked that her death rays were secure, just in case, and held on. “Go.”

Gkika took off, five other jägers surrounding them with sharp teeth and grins. “Ve hunt!”

It only took a few minutes to reach the canyon the explosion had come from, and the fight in it hadn’t moved much at all. The signal, as it turned out, had been for both; Gkika jumped over the canyon before stopping, and Agatha counted Dimo and five other jägers fighting a truly ludicrous swarm of clanks. Only one clank stayed out of the fight, a much larger one with a cockpit in the center, which typical spark cackling came from. “Escape is impossible from my brilliant fire dogs! All you’ve done is give me five more jägers to study! Oh, the things I’ll do—the things I’ll create—why, this is the birth of a new legend, gentlemen! Be proud of your participation!”

“ _Hy_ iz a _gurl_!” one of the jägers howled back.

The other jägers in the canyon ignored the spark, dodging and occasionally ripping apart the smaller clanks that swarmed around them. A few of the larger clanks were wading through the mess as well, but slowly; they seemed to be avoiding grabbing any of the small clanks, so they were easy enough for the jägers to avoid.

The five that had been with Agatha stopped too, staring down at the fight as they shed the supply packs they’d been carrying, and Agatha let go and slid off of Gkika. Now that they could see what was happening, they didn’t seem especially worried; given time, the sheer number of the smaller clanks could probably have worn the six jägers down, but there were five jägers and a jäger General about to join in, and fifteen more jägers on the way, so that wouldn’t be happening.

Vilka still gave Agatha a concerned look. “Iz a lot ov clenks,” they observed.

Agatha unhooked a death ray from her belt, and nodded. “I’ll stay up here. You go.”

Five jägers wasted no more time leaping down to join in the fight, and Gkika only waited long enough to order “Dimo! Op!” before following. Below them Dimo tossed a clank into the canyon wall, which didn’t really do much more than disorient it for a moment, but with the other jägers’ arrival it gave him an opening to launch himself at the opposite wall and begin climbing.

Agatha knelt by the edge, watching for opportunities to shoot. The jägers were all thoroughly mixed in with the clanks, which made finding an opportunity to hit _only_ clanks a little difficult, but there were enough. She handed a death ray to Dimo too after he started grumbling about “efferyvun elze iz fightink” and “vot vas hy tinking, schould haff told dem to find sumvun elze for General.” At first it just made him grumble more about “haff to _shoot_ tings to do _ennyting_ ,” but that death ray had a tendency to make the clanks explode instead of merely melting them, and after the second clank blew up Dimo started giggling. Agatha had a vague sense that this was the sort of thing which would have seemed ominous a handful of years ago.

Two more of the scouting groups arrived a few minutes later, almost simultaneously, which tipped the number of jägers over from enough to slowly take out clanks to enough that they collectively spent as much time destroying clanks as dodging them, which was also about the same time that the spark’s gloating turned to howls of outrage, and the largest clank waded into the fray. It was large enough to stomp on anything the spark pleased, but slow; the jägers dodged easily, and Vilka seemed to be having a great deal of fun leading the smaller clanks under the largest one’s feet and letting it crush them. At least Agatha couldn’t think of any other reason for the way they’d been laughing madly for the last five minutes.

Agatha could leave the large clank for last, it wasn’t really dangerous… but there wasn’t much else she could shoot at, either. She waited for it to turn away, and fired.

The death ray splashed across the clank’s back and it stumbled, sparks scattering across it and erupting from the joints. It must have been shielded somehow; the smaller clanks had simply vaporized when hit. The spark howled in outrage, and Agatha shot at the clank again as it turned.

“Move!” Dimo snarled, tackling Agatha away from the canyon’s edge.

Bullets and acid splashed across the spot she’d been in a moment later, destroying Dimo’s death ray and causing part of the ground to crumble down into the canyon. Agatha stared from where she’d landed, picked herself up, and edged back further, behind a large tree. The bullets were still spraying into the newly crumbled edge, bouncing off and knocking smaller bits of stone down. “…Oh.”

“Get der schpark!” Dimo yelled.

There were shouts from the jägers and the spark, loud crashes, an explosion that hurt Agatha’s ears and the screech of metal tearing. The bullets stopped a moment later, and Agatha frowned, eyeing the canyon, then stepped out from behind the tree.

Dimo turned away from glaring at the canyon, and frowned at her. “Dun get close, Hy vill check if iz safe—”

Agatha rolled her eyes. “Gkika!”

“Iz done, come down!”

Dimo grumbled, but picked Agatha up and carried her down the cliff and into the canyon.

The largest clank had been blown up—must have been one of the bombs—and, it looked like, the spark with it. A few large and many small pieces were scattered across the canyon, and a few jägers seemed to have been hit by shrapnel. Two were sitting, and one leaning forward with his hands on his knees, panting. Gkika was next to one, frowning down at the wound as she pulled shrapnel out of it and he grinned up at her. None were laying down, so Agatha decided they would probably be fine. The smaller and medium clanks were mostly destroyed; a dozen jägers had herded the remaining ones into a corner, and were quickly destroying them as well. The remaining three were poking through the remains of the large clank; as she watched, one had to leap back as an acid container burst open.

Agatha sighed. Jägers. “Is it about to explode?” she called over.

“Hy dun tink so!”

“Leave it, then, I want to look at it later.” It was unlikely that she’d find any new principles in this clank, as basic as the spark’s previous work had been, but it was possible. She eyed the pieces. “Whatever’s left, anyway.”

Agatha turned slowly, looking over the jägers. She didn’t know all of them as well as she knew Dimo and Gkika, but she recognized all the faces, except—there. The one that had been leaning forward with his hands on his knees.

He looked up as Agatha and Dimo approached, expression uncertain, and straightened, then shifted like he wasn’t quite sure what to do.

Agatha stopped just out of reach, and put the death ray back in her belt as she looked over him. He was slightly darker than typical jäger green, tall—built a bit like Gil, actually. Similar hair too, though his was a dark, yellowish gray. He had the typical jäger fangs and claws, and a single brown, curling horn growing out from just above his forehead. His eyes were dark yellow, and his blood had an odd yellowish tint as well, where it was leaking from several small injuries.

Agatha… hadn’t quite thought of what to say. She met his eyes, and reminded herself not to pull the death ray back out just to have something to fiddle with. “So. I heard you’ve been looking for me.”

He blinked, slowly, then looked around, and back at Agatha. “…Heterodyne?” he asked slowly, like he didn’t think so but didn’t know what else to ask.

“Agatha Heterodyne,” she said. “Bill was my father.”

He kept staring, then turned slowly, looking around at the other jägers, getting grins and nods. By the time he was facing Agatha again he was grinning too, eyes squeezed almost shut. There was still a bit of dampness around them. He could grin as wide as Dimo; it was a lot less unnerving, now. “Ve… ken go home?”

“You can go home right now, if you’d like. Or come with us to find the others that are missing. It’s up to you.” Agatha considered. “Well, unless Gkika or Dimo says otherwise, I guess.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Dimo?”

Dimo shuffled forward enough to stand next to Agatha, hands in his pockets and shoulders hunched like he could make responsibility slide off of them if they were at the right angle. “Hy got sort ov aksidently promoted,” he grumbled.

“How hyu do _dot_?”

“De Generals vos all trapped in de time bubble, und _sumvun_ hed to do der tinking schtuff….”

“Time bubble?”

“It’s a long story,” Agatha cut in, and immediately had both jägers’ attention. “We can explain it on the way back to the wagons. Are you hungry?”

He’d still been grinning, but managed to perk up anyway. “Yah!”

“Well, we’ve got plenty of food with us. What’s your name, by the way?”

“Eugen.” He bowed. It wasn’t sloppy at all, surprisingly. “Et hyu serfice, Lady Heterodyne.”

“Nice to meet you,” Agatha said. “Has Gkika looked at you yet?”

“Vot?” He blinked, then glanced down at himself. “Dese? Iz fine, is chust leedle scratches.”

“And the clanks were using acid,” Agatha said. “So I want Gkika to check you anyway.”

“Und Hy vill!” Gkika called from where she was bandaging the second of the jägers that had been sitting down. “Hyu vait, Eugen, or Hy vill knock hyu out!”

Eugen sulked as Gkika checked him, though Agatha thought it was mostly for show, and was quite smug when Gkika decided his injuries were minor enough not to need any medicine or bandages. He was still exhausted, though; it turned out he’d been running from the spark and clanks for several days, and even for a jäger that was a bit excessive.

He got to rest and eat as Agatha took apart the pieces of the largest clank, heterodyning maybe a little louder than she would have otherwise and pretending to not see Eugen’s rapid blinking or hear him sniffing as he ate. The rest of the jägers crowded around him, talking over each other about how they’d destroyed the clanks they ran into, and somehow managing to leave an unbroken line of sight between Eugen and Agatha every time she checked.

Gkika and Dimo were the only ones not in the group; Gkika had pulled Dimo off to the side, and they were going over the fights and strategies and why Gkika had made the decisions she did. Dimo mostly stopped grumbling after the first five minutes or so, except when Gkika cheerfully suggested having him make decisions on the next search that went like this. Dimo started whining about how he wasn’t at all ready for any responsibility yet, so she shouldn’t give him any and should instead let him keep fighting like a normal jäger. Gkika laughed at him.

Agatha hummed, and continued breaking the clanks down into useful parts. _Missing jägers_ was still sitting in the back of her mind, but she’d found one already and he was doing well. Only seven more, and she’d have all her jägers back where they belonged.

**Author's Note:**

> Most of the jägers get along pretty well with Gil (he joins in the bar fights; the "hardly fights anyone" bit is partly teasing, and partly that I'm estimating around 2000 jagers at least, and Gil has only been there a few weeks), and sort of... are aware of Tarvek's existence. They don't dislike him but he's not fun like Gil is. Maxim is one of the few who likes Tarvek (slightly) better, because Tarvek will sometimes fight one on one if you know how to ask right, and he's always willing to talk about fashion.
> 
> Tarvek gets into (friendly, fist)fights with Gil much more often than he does with the jägers. Gil almost always initiates it when they're bickering about something, but Tarvek enjoys showing off too once it starts, so this is a regular occurrence.
> 
> Tarvek tends to get quietly jealous whenever anyone gets affection from Gil or Agatha, because he has no idea how to actually ask for it for himself. This hasn't caused any major issues yet because Gil and Agatha are pretty good at noticing when he's feeling isolated/lonely/unloved and giving him affection without being asked, but it'll need to be worked out eventually.
> 
> Gil gets a fear of spiders to go with Tarvek's fear of flying. Not sure what Agatha's afraid of, spiders also? She and Gil can bond over refusing to go near them while Tarvek sighs and shoos it out of the room.
> 
> The fic got cut off after one jäger because wow this is long enough already, and also because I do not have ideas for all eight yet. So there's a chance the other seven will be written eventually, if people are interested; maybe a fic per jäger? The other two ideas I have are _really_ different in tone.


End file.
